Inside Lingo
by Xx Kiamii xX
Summary: MAJOR Scorpia Rising SPOILERS. Scorpia have finished what was started. Now the aftermath has just begun. The musings of one character leaves many wondering if it can all just go away. If the pain would ever stop. Maybe one day...
1. Chapter 1

**Inside Lingo**

**by Kiamii**

**WARNING! MAJOR! This. is. Scorpia. Rising. Spoiled. If you are about to read it and have not read it yet, do not, I repeat, do NOT read this story yet. If you wish to spoil it, feel free to do so, but it's your loss. I about died reading that book. **

**Disclaimer: I do NOT own Alex Rider. All similar sentences from Scorpia Rising do not belong to me and are used entirely for fun.**

**Summary: Scorpia have finished what was started. Now the aftermath has just begun. **

Birds weren't chirping and that suited him just fine. With light brown hair and serious, dull eyes, the fifteen year old former British schoolboy got up from his bed and looked at the room he was now residing in, his eyes taking nothing in. Like they have been for days. Sabina and her parents were probably still asleep. Alex's shirt was matted in sweat from the nightmares.

The dreams.

_Jack._ The one who had been there for him every step of the way. The older sister he never had. Tears coursed down his cheeks like they had in the face of Grief and Razim all those weeks ago. His eyes shut themselves tightly, trying to erase the pain and misery welling up inside him as he remembered the explosion in the desert that took his guardian and best friend from him forever. The burned car displayed almost mockingly on the screen as he had been forced to watch. Razim had been right, Alex recalled; That the power of emotional pain far exceeded that of physical torture and death. He preferred to be dead, but he knew he couldn't do that.

Standing up, he allowed his body to walk him to the shower. He remembered idly, when everything hadn't gone to pure hell for him, thinking about how in the shower through the blast of hot water that he didn't belong to anyone -not to Jack or his school- but he lost both of those now. His home he grew up in, his guardian, and his own life before. He had deleted his facebook, never to look back at it if he could help it. No longer hanging out on the King's Road with Tom Harris and James Hale. He was no longer in the rowing club or playing soccer in London. He collected himself and prepared for the day, stepping out of the shower and into his sleek bathroom.

Wrapping a towel around himself, he glanced at his body in the mirror like he had always done at first. This was the first time he had actually done so. Having had light brown hair instead of his fair hair when he was fourteen had been genetics, and Alex wondered if he should dye it darker. He was fifteen years old and already felt like he had lived his entire life and was around eighty. He was five foot ten like before and did not even resemble the little-boy looks that Alan Blunt and Mrs. Jones had used against him time and time again. Longer hair helped a little.

Making his way towards the bedroom he dressed in a red shirt and dark jeans. Leaving his hair ruffled, he headed downstairs and prepped up a cooking pan. He was okay at cooking, having been taught by -remembering with a twinge in his heart- Jack who always joked he needed to know if he wanted a wife one day. He cracked the eggs and let them sizzle, thinking about his life here in San Francisco, America. The country Jack pleaded him to go to. Edward Pleasure had been like an adoptive father, registering him for school. His real name was used, Alex Rider. He had started school two weeks ago and was beginning to grab some kids' attention. He didn't mingle though, couldn't yet. Sabina was a year ahead of him and she seemed to be the most popular person in the school, but he didn't want to ruin her reputation and he told her that. She didn't care. She always spent time with him now.

He had gone into the tennis team and so far was doing good there. Soccer was his pastime that would never leave him either at the very least. They didn't have rowing here, but Alex was alright with that. He swapped the former sport for rock-climbing. As he pulled the eggs onto a plate, he heard footsteps and turned around to see Elizabeth Pleasure. She was a pleasant lady and she did her best to mother Alex now that she had legal rights over him. He allowed a small smile grace his normally blank face. It had been hard getting back into the life style of a teenage boy, but it seemed he was at least managing.

"Good morning Alex," she said with a hint of a smile in her tone as she put an arm around his shoulder and kissed him on the cheek in a motherly way. At first he had barely spoken anything and even though his spying days were truly over, the damage had been done. He had even flinched from contact for weeks on end and it wasn't until about three weeks ago he had started smiling a little and talking, though it sounded weak and emotionless. Elizabeth truly worried over the boy who had saved her husband and daughter. She had learned that he had been a spy formerly and she did not care, but merely sought to help him.

"Morning Mrs. Pleasure," he said formally. She sighed. She had tried to get him to call her Elizabeth but he was still on the mend it seemed.

In truth, Alex felt that one day he would be normal again. It would take weeks and probably years, but he was no longer a spy. Though he was aware of the espionage backgrounds and inner workings, he had left it behind in another country. Another life. Jack was with Ian, his mum and dad and anyone else who had died in the world of MI6. It was morbid irony that they all died in some sort of transportation vehicle though none any actual accidents. Jack's parents had been told she had died in a car explosion, but not the why or how. They had asked him through phone once, but he had responded in a dead voice that chilled them to the core.

Sitting himself down with Mrs. Pleasure, he reflected that it would never be over, but until he got used to life once more and saw the light out of this much longer tunnel, it never would.

**Author's Note: Just saying, you did this to yourself if you didn't read the book yet. I just got finished reading it and really wanted to write something about it. It was short because it was a small muse. Hehe. **


	2. Chapter 2

**Inside Lingo**

**Chapter Two "Child Soldier"**

There were four of them in K-Unit. Four men, each with their own special skills. They were all in their mid-thirties.

Wolf, at 35 years old, was short and muscular with square shoulders and black, close-cropped hair. He had a handsome face, made slightly uneven by his nose, which had been broken at some time in the past. He looked at the boy before him, narrowing his eyes as he approached the teenager. Brown eyes looked back at him, sparking a memory long ago shoved into the back of his mind, as he studied their newest teammate.

"So who the hell do you think you are?" he demanded. Dirty blond hair fell in front of those familiar orbs as the teen before him answered.

"Cub," the boy replied, shoulders stiff, back ramrod straight. The voice was slightly different, but he did sound similar. He looked for all the world uncomfortable and miserable, but Wolf cared little right now. Surely, if this boy was _him_, he would have spoken in a happier tone to see the soldiers? Or perhaps in a voice full of recognition. Cub did neither of those things. It had to have been Wolf's wistful thinking.

"A bloody schoolboy!" Wolf hissed, his Spanish accent slightly pronounced as he spoke this time. "I don't believe it. Are you with Special Operations?"

"I'm not allowed to tell you that." Cub insisted before sitting down on the bunk furthest from them, the one he'd been assigned for the remainder of his stay. Special Operations most likely sent Cub, which only made Wolf angrier. How dare they send this child to them? After the first child the team had so long ago failed. Had been the cause of their regression in training, their work falling to pieces several times over the decade, often resulting in returning to camp after hard missions with children involved.

Wolf shook his head and smiled humorlessly. "Look what they've sent us," he muttered. "Double 0 Seven? Double 0 Nothing's more like it." He had to get this boy to be so angry at his life style here, that he'd leave before he ended up dead, like him. Like Alex.

In the days that followed, Wolf watched Cub as the boy followed. Everything the team did, the teen performed the same. Map reading, radio communication, and first aid. There was unarmed combat class that had to have left so many bruises, Wolf knew Snake itched to help Cub out. But the team leader had barked orders at his team when Cub was out the first night. No communicating with Cub. No getting attached. They'd seen what happened last time.

The assault course was, what Wolf thought, supposed to be Cub's breaking point. But it wasn't. Five times the brat was shouted and bullied across nets and ladders, tunnels and ditches, towering walls and swinging tightropes that stretched out for almost a quarter of a mile in, and over, the woodland beside the huts. Half drowned, failed climbs, and freezing slime coating the boy, Wolf watched Cub battle it through. The boy was tough, he'd give him that.

Wolf tried everything to get Cub binned. Taunts and humiliation, shoves and trips. He had one last plan that he'd hoped would work, but it had gone wrong.

The Killing House was his goal. Wolf had blocked his way, feeling a twinge of regret. He was about to hurt this kid, but it would be for the better. Better a little ego bruising and five seconds of hell than dead.

"tough luck, Double 0 Nothing," Wolf said, his voice a tad lighter. He rammed his palm into the kid's chest and took off. He heard the alarms sound and Cub hitting the floor, but did nothing to go back or even turn around.

Wolf kept his face blank as he joined the others and the training officer spat and hissed at Cub. When the training officer demanded an answer, Wolf knew he was done for. But he was surprised.

Cub glanced his way and Wolf was almost taken aback. That indecisive little look, the slight biting of his cheek. It was so much like that little 4-year-old kid a decade ago that Wolf felt true remorse for his actions in that second.

"Nothing happened, sir," Alex said instead. He lied to the sergeant and got reamed out, while Wolf said nothing. Did nothing. He smiled almost bitterly, which was caught by the kid and the sergeant unfortunately.

When Cub had presented the matches before leaving to his tent, Wolf had gotten a clear look at the exhausted boy. Even if this wasn't Alex, he was being a bloody bastard for no reason. It was clear now Cub wouldn't get binned, wouldn't quit, wouldn't give up this new life. He was so much like the kid he'd spent only a few days with that it hurt. Alex had gotten to him. That brave little boy in a cruel childhood by his idiotic uncle had reached his walls without trying.

He didn't speak to his teammates about his thoughts, didn't want to give them false hope. That maybe Cub was Alex. But if so, why couldn't he remember them? What had happened in that explosion?

After getting kicked out of the plane by Cub a day or so later, well Wolf definitely wanted to apologize and try to at least make amends with this kid. Even if he wasn't Alex.

"You're leaving," Wolf said, the final time he'd seen Alex at the SAS camp.

"Yes."

Wolf didn't know what to say really. But he tried. "What happened on the plane..." he began.

"Forget it, Wolf," Cub said. "Nothing happened. You jumped and I didn't. That's all."

Wolf held out his hand. "I want you to know... I was wrong about you. you're all right. And maybe... one day it would be good to work with you."

"You never know," Cub said.

They shook hands and Wolf felt like he was doing the right thing when his last words to the boy slipped out.

"Good luck, Cub."

"Good-bye, Wolf."

Cub walked out and Wolf watched him with a sincere hope that the kid made it out there.

Grenoble was the next time he ever saw the kid. He was part of an attack squad after K-Unit had been disbanded temporarily. Fox had departed for MI6 training, Eagle in the Sniper division, and Snake on medic training. Wolf just floated from division to division, finally becoming one of the leaders in attack squad missions.

Point Blanc was the mission they'd dubbed this one. They had an inside leading them and Wolf was very surprised to see it was Cub. As Jones and Cub talked, Wolf tried not to let his hope show. She'd called him Alex. Jones was the same woman who worked with Ian Rider, the bastard who put little Alex through that hell. Cub really could be Alex, he'd only just need to talk to Jones after this mission.

"He can tell us everything we need to know here and now." Wolf was saying amidst his thoughts. They didn't need a kid in there. Not Alex. He'd already been through enough, from the injuries Alex seemed to sustain already.

The raid was nothing like Wolf imagined. He'd prevented Cub from having a gun, due to orders he couldn't question.

It was when he returned for Alex after leaving him behind that he got his first real jolting reminder of what the kid could make him feel. Protective. Fear. Wanting to do everything he could to defend that child. Why he wanted to be in the SAS.

"Alex!" He didn't think twice about putting a few bullets in the woman trying to kill his teammate. He did get hit in the shoulder, the arm, and the chest for his efforts. But he got her back.

The worry the teen spy showed proved to Wolf that this had to be Alex, even if the kid couldn't remember him from long ago. In the boy's defense Alex had been four back then. So did that make him fourteen...? A fourteen year old spy in this load of dung. MI6 sure was messed in the head.

Wolf couldn't stop watching when Alex literally drove a snow machine into the helicopter, even as he continued to fight. After the battle was over, he waited for the kid.

"What happened to Grief?" he questioned.

"It looks like I 'sleighed' him," Alex replied. Wolf snorted before looking at Alex with a slight twitch of his lips.

"Alex..." The boy looked up at his name. "You did well."

"Thanks," Alex raised an eyebrow at the comment, but didn't react to anything else. Wolf nodded to himself. He was correct. He was correct in a theory he almost didn't want to be right in, but had hoped. Wolf watched him go once more, smiling to himself as he returned to the squad.

When he heard about the appendicitis, he sent the card, hoping it really was just that.

When Fox returned to tell Wolf what he already knew, he revealed to the unit the truth.

It wasn't until Wolf found himself watching the boy skateboard down a hill on an ironing board that he realized what Jones had called Cub. Alex.

MI6... Alex.

God, Cub was Alex.

He'd treated the boy like scum. Like he wasn't worth living for. What the hell had he done? But it wasn't his fault. Wolf had once tried to talk to Cub, before the boy left. He'd casually mentioned a time he'd found a small child in the woods and lost him in an explosion. There had been no recognition. How could he be their Alex from those many years ago? The boy hadn't recognized them at all! Wolf decided then and there that he needed to talk to his unit. They were all seperated after Cub's departure, sent to different aspects and missions and they weren't due to go back to being a team for a few months, hopefully Wolf could get a hold of them soon...

When he did, it was to discover even worst truth than before. They were currently at Snake's place, lounging in his chair and chatting about nothing at first, then their lives after leaving one another, and then it moved onto Cub. It had been almost a year before Wolf could find his teammates and finally get them back together as K-Unit, and even then Eagle had been planning to leave the SAS. The war zone in Iraq had done a number on the normally happy go lucky soldier, so it was understandable, though they wished he didn't. Fox, he discovered, had been removed from the SAS and pulled into the MI6, sent to the ASIS temporarily where he did a mission with the one and only Alex Rider.

"I've got something to tell you guys," Fox said with a frown, "Cub was Alex. The kid we found all those years ago."

"I know," Wolf said, drawing their attention, "he'd told me his name in that Point Blanc mission but I hadn't connected the dots until later. Why didn't he tell us?"

"Amnesia," Fox responded, "Jones finally revealed to me that Alex had hit his head in the explosion, resulting in memory loss though she suspects he might one day recover the memories if pressed enough. His uncle never tried."

"Shouldn't our presence have jogged his memory?" Eagle asked with a thoughtful frown, sitting on the couch in Snake's living room. The owner of the house was currently sitting on the recliner, his own thoughts with him.

"Wasn't enough apparently," Fox said with a shake of his head, "that no good uncle of his had just died when he'd been sent to us. He wouldn't have recognized a hippo with that sort of trauma. He's only fourteen too. He was four when we found him, remember?"

"Crap," Wolf cursed, "and I thought Cub had been 17 at least. God I was a jerk."

"We all were," Snake countered, "but we could make it up to him you know."

"How?" asked Fox.

_"Find him."_

When Jones had informed them their fifth member was permanently retired from the SAS, he whittled answers from her and found Alex moving to America. Ben Daniels later told him he was in the process of being adopted, but it wasn't final. The Pleasure family might not fully adopt the boy. Wolf had retired as a soldier from the SAS by then, at the age of 36, but was later recruited to work as a sergeant at the SAS instead. He spent all of his vacation time on this trip, as did the others, but with a plane ticket to America in one hand and his carry on in the other with an address in his head, Wolf knew that this time he wasn't going to sit by and let the kid suffer.

He had a plan, and he wouldn't fail.

**Author's Note: Took me very long, I know. I really do apologize for that. This is the sequel to The Little Soldier, which is another story. The first chapter can be seen as a one-shot, but the chapters after (including this one) are for the sequel. This was entirely in Wolf's POV to show how he progressed from thinking of Double 0 Nothing to Little Alex. I was originally only going to do one more chapter to this to end TLS, but I'll add one more here and see where that takes me. **


End file.
